If you've been connected to social media in any way, Facebook, Twitter, or the recent VMA's on national television, you've been a witness to the war on makeup. In the recent years the makeup industry has exploded in popularity from the vast collection of YouTube tutorials to several makeup celebs creating their own lines such as Kylie Cosmetics by Kylie Jenner and Jeffree Star's cosmetic line.
With the rise in popularity of makeup comes new trends and of course, haters. From perfectly sculpted eyebrows to eye catching highlights to contour blended by the gods the makeup world set the Internet to flames. Of course, with any trendy topic there will be those who don't agree. Fighting back with memes and tweets galore the makeup-less were out for blood.
"The reason why you gotta take b*tches swimming on the first date" tweeted by one of the makeup-less, but he was not alone. Tweets erupt about girls wearing makeup for men and the cost of makeup and the use of makeup as "false advertising". These attacks even went as far as this as shown in a recent buzzfeed article from this past week's airing of the VMA's about Alicia Key's makeup choice, or lack of:
Even though Alicia looked absolutely stunning! Am I right or am I right?!?!
As this war fires on all four cylinders through social media I can't help but ask, why?
As I scroll through my personal feed I'm constantly seeing quotes about self love and treating people how you want to be treated and if everyone were to be as nice as drunk girls in bathrooms, but why are these all "ifs"? As a generation who sees these problems why are we so quick to retweet or share it but not portray it in our day to day lives?
Self love is the biggest topic here. In all honesty, your self love should over bare any other opinion. If it makes you happy that is all that matters. (Don't take me out of context though, there are always obvious borders on that. Don't go around killing butterflies because it makes you happy!😡) When it comes to self-image we are at such a tender place not only in age but in media with constant mixed signals. There is NOT one singular body type that is hot, not one body type on its own that is deemed the best. We are all perfect in our own skin. With that self-acceptance comes the ability to grow. YES, it's okay to want to lose a few pounds, just be sure that you're doing it to make yourself more healthy and happy. YES, it's okay to "beat your face" with all kinds of makeup, SLAY, just be sure to remind yourself that you still rock it without makeup (and always wash your face before bed especially after a night out! ;) ).
The fact that women wearing makeup for men came up in social media just astonishes me. I'm not a super feminist, ask any of my friends (they mostly all are). I'm a very grounded person and as a female working in a profession that is mostly made up of men (construction, crazy, right?) I can tell you that a woman can do anything a man can do, but babes, were not meant too! I'm here to crack this convo now, if you want to spend an hour and a half sculpting the perfect cat eye and plumping those lips up to catch the attention of a special guy THATS OKAY!!! On the other side of that, if he's not okay with you when you're eyeliner isn't sharp enough to kill a man and your lips are chapped he isn't worth it!!! Overall no, in the general sense we do NOT, I repeat, do NOT spend hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours a year on makeup to singularly impress a man. For a majority of makeup lovers the money and time spent on makeup is an expression of art and passion and creativity.
The "false advertising" argument isn't even worth the amount of letters I've already given it in this sentence, but I'm going to shut it down anyways. If "false advertisement" we're such an issue it would be deemed unreliable to not only wear makeup but also say, push-up bras, or heck any bras-because that's not what boobs look like naturally. If "false advertisement" was an issue it would be fake to color hair, that's not natural. If "false advertisement" was an issue it would be frowned upon to get any kind of plastic surgery done i.e. breast implants, nose jobs, lip enhancements etc. The common core in all of these things are what we have been taught to be aesthetically pleasing the the man, and as I look at the women in the club men most react to or the women in calendars you plaster on your garage wall or the women you choose to please yourself too, we're correct. So my question to you is, where is the line drawn? When does it become "false advertisement"? At what point in time does the women in the club wearing a face full of makeup become less "real" than the women in the playboy calendar? Stop being hypocritical.
As a community, I believe we need to focus more on what we can do to build people up instead of breaking others down. If we all lived life portraying the motto "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all" you'd be surprised how many less walls are built up. It's so sad as a female and as general people that acts of kindness that should be normal daily occurrences are blown up to be these amazing things because we have forgotten how to simply be kind. I am not perfect and in no way am I going to pretend human nature and general society don't instill in us at a young age to judge. We are taught to judge the appearance of a person because a "bad guy looks dirty and scary" or "the tattoo'd guy is dangerous". I am a strong believer that your first thought is what society has conditioned you to think and your second thought defines who you really are. I catch myself walking in public and thinking "wow, her shorts are super short she must be kind of slutty" and then second thought being something of the sort of "why am I judging the clothes she wears? If she feels comfortable then go her!" The war on makeup is a grain of salt in the sea of things that need to be changed as a generation and population, but any start, even the size of a grain of sand, is better than no start at all.
